I Doubt not in the least but among the Many, some will reject this Thesis as False or New-fangled; but They who are Ignorant of it, are meer blind Novices in the Art of Midwifery: For repeated Experience has taught Myself and many Others the Certainty of this Truth; as will more amply appear from the following Discourse.
THE Womb having then ascended into the Cavity of the Belly, if its pointed Parts tend perpendicularly into the Pelvis, so as that its Orifice may be easily touch’d on every Side with the Fingers, its Bottom is placed about the Navel; and This I call a right or natural Situation: But when otherways, the Posture is changed, inclining this or that way, and the Orifice suspended so High, that it can scarce or not at all be touch’d, I call That a wrong and preternatural Position, or oblique Situation of the Womb; which may not only be occasion’d (as is said) by the Weight and Bulk of its Bottom, above the extended and relaxed Ligaments, but also by many other different Causes; such as an obdurated Gland, a Cicatrix, an Ulcer, an Obstruction of the Vessels in the Ligaments or adjacent Parts, &c.
HENCE it is that the wrong Positions of the WOMB are manifold, which would be very tedious to enumerate exactly here; but only, that I may not pass by what is so material, I shall reduce them to a Four-fold Difference; as the Ancients did the Winds, because of the Four Regions or Limits of the Heavens. And Those Four will (I hope) comprehend all other wrong Situations of the WOMB, not very improperly or mal-à-propos, as Ovid[156] has comprehended These in the following elegant Verses, viz.
THE first bad Position of which is, when the Bottom of the WOMB is placed on the left Side of the Woman, a little raised or depress’d; the Orifice being turn’d towards the Spine of the right Os Ilium or Os Pubis, against which the Infant in time of Birth commonly pushes its Head, beats out its Brains, and sticks there to Death: Or else passing the said Spine, it lies a-thwart the Pelvis.
THE Second ill Position of the WOMB is, when the Bottom is seated on the right Side; the Orifice being turn’d towards the left Part of the Pelvis, directly opposite to the other Position, and attended with the same Inconveniencies.
THE Third is, when, in Women having large Bellies, the WOMB hangs too much Forwards; the Orifice being turn’d towards the Os Sacrum: So that the Infant falls down by the Head into the Bent, or crooked Cavity of the Os Coccygis, where it fatally sticks fast.
THE fourth Oblique Situation of the WOMB is, when its Bottom is press’d too near the Diaphragma, and its Body too near the Vertebræ of the Loins; the Orifice being elevated, is thereby turned too near the OS PUBIS, where the Infant striking its Head against these Bones, remains immoveable and perishes: Or, (which is worse) sliding with its Head upon the OSSA PUBIS, it is turn’d on one or other Side or Backwards; when (commonly with Hand or Arm out of the Body) it lies a-thwart the Passage, and infallibly occasions its Own or its Mother’s Death, or Both; unless (as in the three preceding Cases) it be in due time prevented by the Assistance of some very skilful Hand.
THOSE are the Four most difficult and principal wrong, or chief preternatural Situations, of the WOMB; from whence we may easily frame a competent Conjecture of the Rest; to wit, when the Bottom of the WOMB is more or less turn’d to the right, or the left Side, or forwards, or backwards: Since as that differs more or less from the natural Position, so the Birth in like manner is (of consequence) the more or less Difficult, as will hereafter manifestly appear.